Welcome address of Mr. Hossain Khaled, President, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) for the seminar on “Increasing Maritime Connectivity: Bangladesh Business Prospects” organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).
Date: Wednesday, 27 May, 2015,
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Venue: DCCI Auditorium
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Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Mr. Shajahan Khan, MP, Honorable Minister, Shipping Ministry, GoB and the Chief Guest of the seminar;
Major(Retd.) Rafiqul Islam (Bir Uttam), MP, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee of Jatiya Sangsad regarding the Shipping Ministry, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Special Guest of today’s seminar;
Discussants of today’s seminar:
(1)Professor Khabirul Haque Chowdhury, Chartered Engineer, Naval architect & Transport Planner, Department of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET);
(2)Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan Khan, Former President and Coordinating Director of DCCI S/C on National Communication, Transportation and Infrastructure Development and Port, Shipping and ICD/EPZ/SEZ-2015.
Key note Paper Presenter, Capt. A.K.M., Shafiqullah, Honorary Technical Advisor, H.S. Group of Companies & Former Director General, Department of Shipping, Ministry of Shipping, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh;
Distinguished Guests and Participants;
Representatives of the Media, both Print and Electronic;
Assalamu-Alaikum and Good afternoon to you all.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me express my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the Chief Guest, Special Guest, distinguished guests, participants and media representatives for your kind presence in this seminar organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).
I am really glad to be here today in order to discuss some areas of collaboration and discover some potential of new avenues and dimensions in order to promoting maritime connectivity to enhance trade and business potentials.
Connectivityis the keyfor trade facilitation and economic development. In other words, connectivity is the path toward prosperity.A vigorous connectivityenhances productivity, augments trade, reduces costs of doing business and bolsters economic growth.Maritime connectivity is even more essential considering that maritime transportation is responsible for 80 percent of global trade volume with no exception to Bangladesh. I am reallyglad because both Government and policymakers realized the importance of increasing maritime connectivity for regional cooperation among neighboring countries. Maritime connectivity facilitates the regional cooperation which subsequently results into multiple positive impacts on trade and economic growth.
Distinguished Guests,
Bangladesh’s geographical location between two major regions of Asia—South Asia and Southeast Asia—provides a unique opportunity for the country to benefit from greater cross-border movement of goods and services, investment flows, and enhanced human contact.Improved connectivity will enable Bangladesh to translate the potential opportunities to benefit its economy and people through strengthened sub regional, regional and global integration.
Bangladesh’s trade openness has significantly increased over the years with a reduction in tariff peaks, tariff bands, and Para-tariffs. It is laudable that, Bangladesh’s trade with South Asia and Southeast Asia has been on the rise since the early 2000s, and about 40% of total trade currently takes place with these regions. Export share in GDP increased from 5.5%to 20.9% and import share increased from 11.3% to 26.4%from the year 1991 to 2013. Indeed, the trade could have been more if Bangladesh had connected to the regional connectivity much earlier.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank Hon’ble Prime Minister of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina on behalf of DCCI for the tremendous effort and leadership to settle maritime boundary issues with the neighboring countries- India and Myanmar on Bay of Bengal. 19467 Sq. miles maritime border wasrealized from India and111,000 Sq. kilometers from Myanmar. This stance will have influential effect to improve bilateral relations with the countries. Due to this maritime condition of the country, Bangladesh has the opportunity to expand trade and business with India, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China as well as Sri Lanka. However, to this end, Bangladesh needs to be well-connected to these countries.
The New Silk Road initiative by China will connect China to Eastern Europe. This one Belt,One road–Economic Silk Road is actually the Chinese economic Express Train benefiting all member countries. We can also give a thought to connect our maritime connectivity with the maritime silk route of China to get connected with global economy in a greater extent.
Better and greater connectivity will enhance business growth ofTourism, Frozen foods and Sea foods, Backward linkage industries and Shipbuilding sectors as well increase the trade of other business. On the other hand, connectivity will definitively revive the trade volume, reduce lead time for export, lower port turn around time and increase the container ship movement as well as strengthen the maritime Supply Chain Management. To ensure these trade growths, we need to work on building capacity of Chittagong port.
Hon’ble Guests,
The major seaport of Bangladesh is Chittagong, thus, connecting roads from port to Chittagong and Dhaka needs to be improved.Mongla is the second largest sea port and it lacks the required container handling equipment. Connectivity of this port from other parts of the country is weak. Since, Port development is the prerequisite for trade facilitation, we urgently require to improve the capacity of port to make the trade process smooth, hassle-free and transparent. Besides, it is evident that, we need tangible endeavor to develop a deep-sea port in Sonadia or elsewhere since our Chittagong port lacks sufficient capacity to accommodatethe increasing business in near future in the event of increased Maritime Connectivity as well reduce the cost of International trade using the new deep Sea port.
We meanwhile came to know China is investing $50 Billion in Railway connectivity between Pakistan and China which would be linked to Myanmar too. This is going to be huge and landmark event in boosting their regional trade. Could we look into this proposed Railway connectivity to find any opportunity to connect for extending our regional trade and business cooperation ahead.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very much hopeful that, this session will help understand the business potentials for Bangladesh with neighboring countries and the rest of the world through maritime connectivity. I hope that, Government andPolicy makers will take into account issues in this regard and address accordingly for the betterment of our economic growth.I truly believe, we will be able to harness our full potential when the true maritime axis will emerge.
Thank you all, again.
Mr. Hossain Khaled
President
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI)
Excerpt from Jamuna TV on Marine Cadet
Now I would like tobring in the attention of our Hon’ble Chief Guest a crucial and alarming issue of bright and talented young Marine Cadets of Bangladesh who are deprived from having jobs in International Ships as being victim of corruption of Government agency of Bangladesh which we came to know from a report in Jamuna TV. As complaints have been piled and mounted to IMO (International Maritime Organisation) by China, Singapore, Oman, Ecuador, Hongkong, Brazil and other countries against the Bangladeshi Mariners working in the International ships that most of the mariners are having fraudulent Seaman Certificate and Continuous Discharge Certificate from the relevant Government agency which severely damaged the reputation of Bangladeshi cadets and Marine graduates.
I would request Hon’ble Minister to address this issue to revive the reputation of Bangladesh Marine academy graduates and recover the image of our mariners and marine professionals globally. Since our marine cadets can contribute a lot to the growing capacity from the opportunities maritime connectivity in near future.
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